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Brazil landslides kill 84, leaving towns isolated

RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 25 (Reuters)
- Isolated towns in southern Brazil appealed for medicine and other supplies
on Tuesday as the deaths from landslides rose to 84 and thousands of people
remained cut off from aid, clean water and power.

Days of heavy rain have devastated areas
of Santa Catarina state, the heartland of German and Italian immigrants
in Brazil, burying houses and their residents in rivers of mud, collapsing
roads and forcing more than 54,000 people out of their homes.

Another 30 people were missing and eight
areas remained completely cut off, the civil defense agency said, as medicine,
food, and other basic supplies began to arrive from the federal government
and neighboring states.

"We had a tsunami of clay, mud and
trees," seamstress Josiane Malmann told Globo TV after being rescued
by helicopter with a group of 200 people who were trapped in Ilhota.

"Many people and children died ...
The hills all fell in an avalanche."

Five hundred soldiers were sent to Blumenau,
famous for its annual Oktoberfest beer festival, where 13 people were killed
by landslides and drinking water was expected to be cut off until Friday.
Blumenau was the town with the worst death toll so far, of 20.

"Mattresses, food, blankets -- these
are the main necessities we need to look after our displaced people,"
said Joao Paulo Kleinubing, the town mayor.

"There is still a risk of landslides
if it rains again so we are telling people in risky areas to leave their
houses and seek shelter."

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula
da Silva has offered all available federal help to the state, one of Brazil's
wealthiest, and sent several ministers to the affected areas to assess
their needs on Tuesday.

The civil defense agency said that 14,500
gallons (55,000 liters) of drinking water had been distributed but appealed
for more donations of water as the most urgent priority.

CUT OFF

Blumenau was one of five towns to declare
a state of emergency in the Itajai valley, the worst affected area in the
state whose main river rose 36 feet (11 meters) and swept away its banks.

The state government said the floods
and mudslides had affected 1.5 million people, leaving about 150,000 without
electricity.

Rescue workers and army troops were using
helicopters and motor boats to reach stranded residents, with transport
in the state paralyzed as many main roads were cut off.

"Not even tractors can reach these
areas because they sink, so access is only possible with aircraft,"
said Major Marcio Alves, a coordinator with the Civil Defense agency.

Television footage showed hillsides breaking
away and sliding into rivers of mud, while another mudslide destroyed a
house in seconds. A lane of one main road was shown collapsed after its
earth foundations crumbled.

Almost all the deaths were caused by
landslides.

"My son is lost, we don't know whether
he's alive or dead," one man, identified as Mario, told Globo News
before breaking down in sobs.

The floods also shut down a branch of
a pipeline carrying natural gas from Bolivia to Brazil on Monday, cutting
off supplies to Santa Catarina and neighboring Rio Grande do Sul state,
the company that operates the line said.

The first deaths were reported on Saturday
after two days of heavy downpours and weeks of steady rain.

The Latin American country is in spring
season when rains in the southern part of the country are at their heaviest.